The Monarch Is Dead, Long Live Code Doug

The post The Monarch Is Dead, Long Live Code Doug appeared first on Vegas Slots Online News.

Polk vs Ketola 

It was a jarringly offbeat and genuinely bizarre couple of hours on the Doug Polk Poker YouTube channel as the charmless, white-hooded, scammer turned Duel Casino owner Ossi Ketola brought his bazillion-dollar gushy to the doorstep of poker’s most famous heads-up specialist. Yesterday, four pretty quick matches on ClubWPT Gold resulted in a 3-1 victory for Polk who made it a $1.2m afternoon at the office. 

the biggest matches of Polk’s career who, earlier this week, played a rollercoaster session

They were the biggest matches of Polk’s career who, earlier this week, played a rollercoaster session on a live edition of High Stakes Poker on PokerGo. Up over $1m at one point in the night, a huge 4-bet pot and 3-street bluff versus Alan Keating was picked off in dazzling fashion, crashing the Upswing Poker founder and Lodge Card Club owner back down to earth. 

Polk joked with Ketola about the prospect of having his best or worst day on the back of his swingiest but the young Fin seemed oblivious, utterly unimpressed by the stakes and more interested in the content of the chat, the availability of Snus and a head massage from his ‘mental game coach.’ In any case, to mere mortals those stakes were very big as the two men played three $800,000 matches and one $1.6m match. 

Monarch Millions

Back in August, Ketola began his series of nosebleed heads-up invitational matches in Tallinn. Dubbed ‘The Monarch Millions,’ he tussled with Kayhan Mokri, Elias Talvitie, and Dan ‘Jungleman’ Cates. $500,000 and $1,000,000 matches in the Estonian capital would quickly look like kiddy games after the stakes escalated monstrously in north Cyprus just a few days later. 

Cates was again the beneficiary, winning a further $13m from Ketola in the Onyx Club at the Merit Resort and Casino. Visibly exhausted after not sleeping for 40 hours and hopped up on 15 nicotine pouches, Ketola seemed strung out for the duration of that encounter. In the days that followed, he booked further huge losses to Wiktor ’Limitless’ Malinowski and Alex Foxen. 

The next stop for Ketola was the Triton Super High Roller Series in Jeju in September where he played against Bjorn Li, better known as ‘AsianFlushie’ on the virtual felt. Four $4m matches were just the appetisers, three of which were gobbled by Li, before a $16m match was agreed. In this confrontation, Ketola looked hopelessly adrift, a 7:1 dog in chips after not that many hands. Credit to the Fin, he battled back to roughly level and a crucial hold with pocket nines versus pocket eights would all but clinch it for him. 

he entered the arena and merrily inserted his own ‘Code Doug’ plugs

Since then, Ketola has been vocal about his desire to play some more high profile poker players. People like Phil Hellmuth and Daniel Negreanu have been touted as has the misogynist influencer and alleged human trafficker Andrew Tate. The purpose of these games seems to be publicity and part of a broader marketing strategy for both himself and his business ventures. An ad-reading savant, Polk can self-promote with the best of them and last night, he entered the arena and merrily inserted his own ‘Code Doug’ plugs as he gave short shrift to Ketola. 

Four Games, $1.2m won by Polk

In Game One, it was all one way traffic as Ketola suffered death by a thousand cuts. Polk made a lot of good hands, but Ketola’s passivity was noteworthy as he put up little to no resistance. In the final hand, Polk 3-bet pocket sevens and called it off against the 4-bet jam. Ketola had Ace-Five and the board ran out clean. 

In Game 2, it looked to be a repeat of Game 1 with Ketola whittled down to half a stack. The Fin rallied to get back to close to even and then got very unlucky when the run-our was unkind after his 4-bet with Ace-King was snapped by Polk’s Ace-Queen suited.

Game 3 was cut-off midstream but Ketola had made inroads into Polk’s stack in the early going. Polk’s social media informed the audience that he had been beaten and the promise of a $1.6m match was announced. 

In Game 4, there was some back and forth with Polk nudging his way to a 3:1 lead. In the final hand, Ketola limped the button with pocket Aces and Polk checked behind with Q5. The J42 went check, 2x pot overbet from Ketola and a call from Polk. The turn 7 went check, 1.3x pot from Ketola and another call Polk who was eyeing up his implied odds. The 6 completed the flush for Polk who snap-checked it over to Ketola. With just under a pot-sized bet left, Ketola shoved and Polk called to end the match. 

The matches lack soul, romance, or jeopardy

Since they began, ‘The Monarch Millions’ have been the source of controversy and speculation in the poker community. Ketola’s source of funds have been questioned, as has his behaviour. He has repeatedly used racist language on his social media accounts and on live streams. He was recently banned from Twitter, his personal @monarch account and his business-linked crypto casino accounts, @duel and @CSGOEmpire all removed. 

The media has covered them but not with any sense of awe or excitement

The matches, which are formatted as a sort of caged cash game, have broken all records when it comes to the biggest televised pots. The media has covered them but not with any sense of awe or excitement. To the majority of onlookers, something feels missing. The games, despite their size, lack soul, romance, or jeopardy. 

Is that because it is apparent that many of the high-stakes players are only playing for a fraction of their action? Is it because Ketola is so sketchy and loathsome that he is neither a compelling hero nor villain? Is it because the duels are such a mis-match? Honestly, I’m not sure. But once again, last night, we witnessed another decisive victory for a person who plays the game for a living. To say that this all feels like taking candy from a baby would be an insult to babies who I’m pretty sure clutch their lollipops with a stronger grip than Ketola has on his big blinds. 

The post The Monarch Is Dead, Long Live Code Doug appeared first on Vegas Slots Online News.